Friday, July 25, 2008

This is just a sample format of the questions for practicing only. Do not bring this material to the office at any cost.

Mathematics questions:

1. If a number is increased by 20% and then decreased by 20%., then the final number will be

Ans: 4% less

2. A cricketer has an average score of 24 runs in 24 innings. How many runs must he score in the 25th innings to make his average 25?

Ans: 49

3. Evaluate 617 + 6.017 +0.617 + 6.0017

Ans: 629.6357

4. 0.05* 0.4 /0.98 =

Ans: none of these

5. The age of a father is 3 times that of his son. After 20 years he will be twice as old as his son. What is current age of father?

Ans: 60 years

6. If 9/x = x/144 , x = ?

Ans: 36

7. A number is twice the first and thrice the second and their average is 44. What is the largest number?

Ans : 72

8. A can do a work in 8 days and B can do it in 24 days. In how many days they can together do it?

Ans: 6 days

9. A trader fixes the price of article 30 % above the cost price. If he allows a discount of 10% find his gain %

Ans: 17 %

10. Find the unit digit in the product (256*27*159*182)

Ans: 6

SECTION II

1) Starting from a point, Raju walked 12 meters towards north, he turned right and walked 10 meters; he again turned right and walked 12 meters, then he turned left and walked 5 meters. How far is he now and in which direction from the starting point?Ans: 15 m towards east

2) Raghu ranks 19th in the class of 40. What is his rank from the left?Ans: 22

3) Sudha is taller than Pushpa.but shorter than Malathi; Geetha is shorter than Vijju; Vijju is not as tall as pushpa. Who should come in the middle if all stand in a row according to height?Ans: Pushpa

4) Drama is related to Director in the same way as Magazine is related toAns: Editor

5) In a certain code CLOCK is written KCOLC. How is STEPS written in that code?Ans: SPETS

6) If “light” is called “dark”; “dark” is called “green”; “green” is called “blue”; “blue” is called “red” ; ”red” is called “white” is called “yellow” what is the color of blood ?Ans: White

10) In a basket, there are some apples which are getting doubled for every one minute. If the basket becomes full with apples within an hour, when would it have been exactly half?Ans: At the 59th minute

SECTION III

COMPREHENSIVE PASSAGE I

1) Trinidad and Tobago is /areAns: One country composed of two islands

2) Tourists have been attracted by Trinidad and Tobago mainly because of itsAns: Music and Dance

4)According to the passage, to provide care for their babies working parents shouldAns: Find a private home with other infants

5) PediatricianAns: A child specialist

PART III

Read the following sentences carefully and tick one of the options which is very close to the bolded and underlined word in the sentence:

11) A batsman walking back to the pavilion before the umpire has given verdict is a rare sight these days.Ans: Judgement

12) Four countries – Brazil, Russia, India & China – are likely to play a significant role in the world economy sooner than 2050, a new report by international consultants Goldman Sachs has said.Ans: Important

13) Andhra Pradesh government is planning to impose tariff at the rate of one rupee a unit on power consumed by agriculture pump sets in corporate formsAns: Enforce

14) A human cell contains some hundred thousand different proteins which have numerous important functions.Ans: Several

15)Expert in meterological dept are quite skeptical about the benefits from the cloud seeding operations for which the government has so far paid nearly Rs. 7 crores to the contracters.Ans: Doubtful

Tick the right spelling of the word from the given options

16)Ans: Immortal

17) Ans: Symmetrical

18)Ans: Encyclopedia

19)Ans: Mortgage

20)Ans: Dictionary

Written communication: Duration 10 minutes

Please write an email apologizing to the customer for serving him/her with a non-vegetarian pizza instead of a vegetarian pizza.

Before you come for the interview, I would like to give certain Hints & tips for success at interview.

About our Company:

Our parent company is First American Corporation. Its Indian operation is First Indian Corporation. We have two branches in India, one in Bangalore & other at Hyderabad. The head office is at Dallas, USA. Previously, our office was at ITPL and in January, we shifted our office to Bagamane Tech Park, located in CV Raman Nagar. We are about 2,500 employees working at Bagamane & about 2000 at Hyderabad, and nearly 36,000 employees worldwide. We mainly deal with Mortgage information. We have software, BPO- Voice & Non-voice comprising of more than 100 processes at FIC. For more information about our company, you can visit the websites: http://www.firstindiancorp.com and www.firstam.com

Round 3: Voice TestHere you are tested on the US Accent..Round 4: Operations Manager RoundThis is the most important of all the rounds. Here you are asked to tell more about yourself.

In the HR & Operations Manager round, you need to speak about your family background, your educational qualifications, technical qualification, your strengths and finally your work experiences in different companies and reason for leaving the company in each case. Please mention your role and responsibilities in each work experience and stress on how you can implement those work experience in the new job to provide a quality work and for the growth of the company.

Note: Please wish the interviewer before you take the seat with a warm shake hand.

Here is sample format for How to speak in the interview taken me (Anil Kumar) as example:

Good Morning Sir, this is Anil, a B.Sc Graduate seeking a prospective & growth oriented job. I was born and brought up in Bangalore. My father is a section officer at Vidhana Soudha. My mother is a retired head constable. I have two younger sisters. Both of them working medical transcriptionist at Maxhealthscirbe located at Koramangala.About my educational qualification, I did my SSLC from Sri Saraswathi Vidya Mandira located at Chamarajpet. I completed my PUC with first class from BHS First Grade College located at 4th Block Jayanagar. My optional subjects were Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics & Biology. Then I completed my graduation BSc with First class from the same college in 1998. My optional subjects were Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics since I loved Maths & Chemistry very much. In my school days, I was weak in Maths and there were certain times wherein I developed fever thinking of Maths. Then I was introduced my Maths teacher Vijaydvaja, who imparted the basic fundamental of mathematics to me. Later on, I met my Maths guru Sri B V Nagaraj, Principal of Bangalore High School, where I went for Maths & Science coaching. My Guru BV Nagaraj, implemented confidence in Maths and Vedic Maths helped me to master Maths.

About my technical qualification, I have done 6 months course in Diploma in Computer Applications from St Joseph College. Later on, I did 2 years course in Honor diploma in Software Engineering from Aptech computers, MG Road with a brief exposure to C, C++, Java, Oracle, Internet & other technical aspects.

About my work experience, I first worked as a office assistant at Universal Academy located at 4th Block Jayanagar for a period of 3 months. My job role was to maintain student’s academics information in a database. I worked there for a period of three months as I got good offer to work as Subject Specialist for chemistry at Asian Institute of Technology which is located in Jayanagar. My job role was to prepare questionnaires for IIT-JEE, CET & other engineering entrance exams. I worked there for 1 year as it was a contract.

Then, I entered the BPO section as Insurance Claim Processor at Dharma Systems, located in Koramangala. My Job profile was to enter patient information of various American hospitals into a Database called Medsuite which was sent to Insurance company for processing the medical claims. I was also responsible for training the new joinees and generation of daily report of issues related the work and mail it to the head office located in USA. There, I worked for 2 years. I am unable to continue in that company since it is a two year contract. Last week, we received a mail from USA for cutting down the staff members.

About my hobbies & interests, I like conducting science experiments. From the childhood days, I used to do lot of science experiments especially chemistry like preparation of different chemical compounds like Sulphuric acid, phosphorus pentoxide etc. at home. I had also constructed a telescope during my school days. In my college days, I was introduced to Vedic Maths by my Friend Yogesh, which made me an expert in Mathematics. I have published 4 books in Maths for college students. During my free time, I handle tuitions for college & High school students. I love watching movies and listening to music.

I came to know about your company from my ex-colleague Gokul , who is working in your company. He told me that job is related to mortgage information. He told me that FIC offers a good working environment for the employees which motivate them to work with pleasure. This encouraged me to seek a job in your company. He also told about his job profile that this job involves searching information on internet based on certain criteria. I have good knowledge about internet & I am aware of search engines like yahoo, Google & hotmail which are use to get information related to news, entertainment etc. I feel that it is an interesting assignment for challenging person like me to work here to provide a quality work to the company. I possess good analyzing skills and can understand the nature of job quickly. I am willing to work in shift if the job demands. I am flexible to work individually as well as in teams as per the company requirements. I came to know from Gokul that this job demands good analyzing and searching skills. I have worked efficiently providing quality work to my previous companies. If you provide me an opportunity, I can dedicate myself to provide a quality work for a better growth & prospects of the company.

Note:1) Speak clearly with medium speed so that everyone can understand what you speak.2) Present yourself as a special person by speaking about your talents if you have. For example, painting, sports, dancing, singing etc.3) Talk about your roles and responsibilities in your previous company and how you used to manage the work.4) Please write in a piece of paper about what to speak in the interview in the above format and practice in front of a mirror.5) Put stress on your willingness to work in the company.6) Be confident, please put in your best efforts and leave the rest to God.

Tips for making the resume:

Let the resume contains at least two pages in the format as specified by me. I don’t want any resume of only one page. Let it have the following headlines:

Career Objective:

Job specialization:

Academic Details:

Technical qualifications: any basic computer course that you have done.

Work experience: company name, designation, role and duration.

Personal details:

Hobbies and Interests: Like playing chess, debate and extra curricular activities

Languages known:Some common questions asked during the HR and Operations Manager rounds:

1) Tell about yourself :Ans: Refer the document for this question.

2) What salary are you expecting?Ans: As per company standards but negotiable depending upon my performance.

3) Why do you want to leave your previous company?Ans: Give a valid reason and do not mention that you are getting less salary in the current company where you are working. Instead, say that the job is not stable since it is on contract basis. Tell that you would like to have long term relationship with company where you work.

4) Why should I offer you the job at FIC?Or why should I hire you?Ans: I came to know about your company from my friend Anil, who is working in Agency Refund department of your organization. He told me that FIC offers a good working environment for the employees which motivate them to work with pleasure. This encouraged me to seek a job in your company. He told me that job is related to mortgage information which involves searching information on internet based on certain criteria and one should possess good analyzing skills. I have good knowledge about internet & search engines like yahoo, Google & hotmail which are use to get information related to news, entertainment etc. I feel that it is an interesting assignment for challenging person like me to work here to provide a quality work to the company. I have worked efficiently being a good team player providing quality work to my previous companies. I possess good analyzing skills and can understand the nature of job quickly. I am willing to work in shift if the job demands. I am flexible to work individually as well as in teams as per the company requirements. I can contribute significantly to challenging assignments. I have been keen in learning things and implementing the new ideas as a continuous improvement initiative. If you provide me an opportunity to work in your organization, I can dedicate myself to provide a quality work for a better growth & prospects of the company.

5) What are your strengths and weakness?Ans: Tell something special about yourself like knowledge, ability to grasp the nature of job quickly, ability to handle the job individual without any extra support etc. But don’t say too much of it.

6) Explain your roles in the previous company or explain your job profile in the previous company.Ans: Try to present the nature of your job in the present company and give a clear picture of your roles and responsibilities. Also, tell about the challenges and problems you faced and how you tackled with your skills to become a good team player.

7) What do you mean by Mortgage?A loan to finance the purchase of real estate, usually with specified payment periods and interest rates.

8) What is BPO?BPO is the act of transferring some of an organization's repeated non-core and core business processes to an outside provider to achieve cost reductions while improving service quality.Outsourcing gives you the right combination of people, processes and technology to operate effectively in the Global market place without burdening your time and budget.

The most common business process that gets outsourced is call centers. Call centers and Help Desks of many multi national and fortune 500 companies are being outsourced to low waged, English speaking countries such as Philippines and India.

9) What do you know about our company?

First Indian Corporation Private Limited is a subsidiary of First American Corporation. It is a leading provider of offshore transaction and technology services to the Real Estate Information and Mortgage Industry with over 4,700 professionals in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Also, I came to know that FIC is launching its new operation in Mangalore in January 2007.

First Indian Corporation is a pioneer in BPO industry in India having commenced its Image Processing operations in Hyderabad in 1994.First Indian Corporation's primary focus is on the Title Insurance, Property Tax, Flood Certification, Default Management Services, Credit and Real Estate Information segments.

The First American Corporation is America’s largest provider of business information products and services combining advanced analytics with its vast data resources. The corporation commands leading market share positions in many of the segments it operates with $8.10 billion revenue in 2005 with 35,000 employees worldwide.

10) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?I would like to see myself as a professional who is well equipped with knowledge, who can perform at his best and would like to lead a group of people who are ambitious and can work towards the fulfillment of their ambitions and help them in developing creative thoughts and contributing them towards the growth of my society, my organization & for my people.

11) What is your career goal or ambition?Well, everybody looks for good pay, and would love to work with deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and with a work environment where you would have work & life balance both.

12) Tell something about your family background.

13) Tell something about your hobbies.

14) Are you willing to work in night shift?

It is better to take a print out of the information that I have sent and practice it before coming to the interview.

Please quote my name, employee id, email Id and department name on your resume and in the interview, tell the HR/Manager that you are my friend and personally know each other because the interview is strictly through employee reference only. Please meet me in person at the reception of FIC (3rd Floor) before coming for the interview for better acknowledgement.

Round 3: Written CommunicationsHere you will be asked to write a letter to test your vocabulary & grammatical skills

Round 4: Non Verbal ReasoningFor this, you can again refer a book of Verbal and Non Verbal reasoning by RS Agarwal

Round 4: HRYou are asked to tell about yourself.

Round 5: Operations Manager RoundThis is the most important of all the rounds. Here you are asked to tell more about yourself.

In the HR & Operations Manager round, you need to speak about your family background, your educational qualifications, technical qualification, your strengths and finally your work experiences in different companies and reason for leaving the company in each case. Please mention your role and responsibilities in each work experience and stress on how you can implement those work experience in the new job to provide a quality work and for the growth of the company.

Note: Please wish the interviewer before you take the seat with a warm shake hand.

Here is sample format for How to speak in the interview taken me (Anil Kumar) as example:

Good Morning Sir, this is Anil, a B.Sc Graduate seeking a prospective & growth oriented job. I was born and brought up in Bangalore. My father is a section officer at Vidhana Soudha. My mother is a retired head constable. I have two younger sisters. Both of them working medical transcriptionist at Maxhealthscirbe located at Koramangala.About my educational qualification, I did my SSLC from Sri Saraswathi Vidya Mandira located at Chamarajpet. I completed my PUC with first class from BHS First Grade College located at 4th Block Jayanagar. My optional subjects were Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics & Biology. Then I completed my graduation BSc with First class from the same college in 1998. My optional subjects were Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics since I loved Maths & Chemistry very much. In my school days, I was weak in Maths and there were certain times wherein I developed fever thinking of Maths. Then I was introduced my Maths teacher Vijaydvaja, who imparted the basic fundamental of mathematics to me. Later on, I met my Maths guru Sri B V Nagaraj, Principal of Bangalore High School, where I went for Maths & Science coaching. My Guru BV Nagaraj, implemented confidence in Maths and Vedic Maths helped me to master Maths.

About my technical qualification, I have done 6 months course in Diploma in Computer Applications from St Joseph College. Later on, I did 2 years course in Honor diploma in Software Engineering from Aptech computers, MG Road with a brief exposure to C, C++, Java, Oracle, Internet & other technical aspects.

About my work experience, I first worked as a office assistant at Universal Academy located at 4th Block Jayanagar for a period of 3 months. My job role was to maintain student’s academics information in a database. I worked there for a period of three months as I got good offer to work as Subject Specialist for chemistry at Asian Institute of Technology which is located in Jayanagar. My job role was to prepare questionnaires for IIT-JEE, CET & other engineering entrance exams. I worked there for 1 year as it was a contract.

Then, I entered the BPO section as Insurance Claim Processor at Dharma Systems, located in Koramangala. My Job profile was to enter patient information of various American hospitals into a Database called Medsuite which was sent to Insurance company for processing the medical claims. I was also responsible for training the new joinees and generation of daily report of issues related the work and mail it to the head office located in USA. There, I worked for 2 years. I am unable to continue in that company since it is a two year contract. Last week, we received a mail from USA for cutting down the staff members.

About my hobbies & interests, I like conducting science experiments. From the childhood days, I used to do lot of science experiments especially chemistry like preparation of different chemical compounds like Sulphuric acid, phosphorus pentoxide etc. at home. I had also constructed a telescope during my school days. In my college days, I was introduced to Vedic Maths by my Friend Yogesh, which made me an expert in Mathematics. I have published 4 books in Maths for college students. During my free time, I handle tuitions for college & High school students. I love watching movies and listening to music.

Note:1) Speak clearly with medium speed so that everyone can understand what you speak.2) Present yourself as a special person by speaking about your talents if you have. For example, painting, sports, dancing, singing etc.3) Talk about your roles and responsibilities in your previous company and how you used to manage the work.4) Please write in a piece of paper about what to speak in the interview in the above format and practice in front of a mirror.5) Put stress on your willingness to work in the company.6) Be confident, please put in your best efforts and leave the rest to God.

Tips for making the resume:

Let the resume contains at least two pages in the format as specified by me. I don’t want any resume of only one page. Let it have the following headlines:

Career Objective:

Job specialization:

Academic Details:Technical qualifications: any basic computer course that you have done.

Work experience: company name, designation, role and duration.

Personal details:Hobbies and Interests: Like playing chess, debate and extra curricular activities

Languages known:Some common questions asked during the HR and Operations Manager rounds:

1) Tell about yourself :Ans: Refer the document for this question.

2) What salary are you expecting?Ans: As per company standards but negotiable depending upon my performance.

3) Why do you want to leave your previous company?Ans: Give a valid reason and do not mention that you are getting less salary in the current company where you are working. Instead, say that the job is not stable since it is on contract basis. Please do not say any thing about family problem for discontinuing your previous job. Instead you can tell that I want deliver quality work and enhance my job skill and that these qualities are not found in your present company where you are working.Tell that you would like to have long term relationship with company where you work.

4) Why should I offer you the job at FIC?Or why should I hire you?Ans: I came to know about your company from my friend Anil, who is working in Agency Refund department of your organization. He told me that FIC offers a good working environment for the employees which motivate them to work with pleasure. This encouraged me to seek a job in your company. He told me that job is related to mortgage information which involves searching information on internet based on certain criteria and one should possess good analyzing skills. I have good knowledge about internet & search engines like yahoo, Google & hotmail which are use to get information related to news, entertainment etc. I feel that it is an interesting assignment for challenging person like me to work here to provide a quality work to the company. I have worked efficiently being a good team player providing quality work to my previous companies. I possess good analyzing skills and can understand the nature of job quickly. I am willing to work in shift if the job demands. I am flexible to work individually as well as in teams as per the company requirements. I can contribute significantly to challenging assignments. I have been keen in learning things and implementing the new ideas as a continuous improvement initiative. If you provide me an opportunity to work in your organization, I can dedicate myself to provide a quality work for a better growth & prospects of the company.

5) What are your strengths and weakness?Ans: Tell something special about yourself like knowledge, ability to grasp the nature of job quickly, ability to handle the job individual without any extra support etc. But don’t say too much of it.

6) Explain your roles in the previous company or explain your job profile in the previous company.Ans: Try to present the nature of your job in the present company and give a clear picture of your roles and responsibilities. Also, tell about the challenges and problems you faced and how you tackled with your skills to become a good team player.

7) What do you mean by Mortgage?A loan to finance the purchase of real estate, usually with specified payment periods and interest rates.

8) What is BPO?BPO is the act of transferring some of an organization's repeated non-core and core business processes to an outside provider to achieve cost reductions while improving service quality.Outsourcing gives you the right combination of people, processes and technology to operate effectively in the Global market place without burdening your time and budget.

The most common business process that gets outsourced is call centers. Call centers and Help Desks of many multi national and fortune 500 companies are being outsourced to low waged, English speaking countries such as Philippines and India.

9) What do you know about our company?

First Indian Corporation Private Limited is a subsidiary of First American Corporation. It is a leading provider of offshore transaction and technology services to the Real Estate Information and Mortgage Industry with over 5,000 professionals in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Also, I came to know that FIC has launching its new operation in Mangalore from January 2007.

First Indian Corporation is a pioneer in BPO industry in India having commenced its Image Processing operations in Hyderabad in 1994.First Indian Corporation's primary focus is on the Title Insurance, Property Tax, Flood Certification, Default Management Services, Credit and Real Estate Information segments.

The First American Corporation is America’s largest provider of business information products and services combining advanced analytics with its vast data resources. The corporation commands leading market share positions in many of the segments it operates with $8.10 billion revenue in 2005 with 35,000 employees worldwide.

10) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?I would like to see myself as a professional who is well equipped with knowledge, who can perform at his best and would like to lead a group of people who are ambitious and can work towards the fulfillment of their ambitions and help them in developing creative thoughts and contributing them towards the growth of my society, my organization & for my people.

11) What is your career goal or ambition?Well, everybody looks for good pay, and would love to work with deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and with a work environment where you would have work & life balance both.

1. What is database?A database is a logically coherent collection of data with some inherent meaning, representing some aspect of real world and which is designed, built and populated with data for a specific purpose.

2. What is DBMS?It is a collection of programs that enables user to create and maintain a database. In other words it is general-purpose software that provides the users with the processes of defining, constructing and manipulating the database for various applications.

3. What is a Database system?The database and DBMS software together is called as Database system.

6. Describe the three levels of data abstraction?The are three levels of abstraction:Ø Physical level: The lowest level of abstraction describes how data are stored.Ø Logical level: The next higher level of abstraction, describes what data are stored in database and what relationship among those data. Ø View level: The highest level of abstraction describes only part of entire database.

7. Define the "integrity rules"There are two Integrity rules.Ø Entity Integrity: States that "Primary key cannot have NULL value"Ø Referential Integrity: States that "Foreign Key can be either a NULL value or should be Primary Key value of other relation.

8. What is extension and intension?Extension -It is the number of tuples present in a table at any instance. This is time dependent.Intension -It is a constant value that gives the name, structure of table and the constraints laid on it.

9. What is System R? What are its two major subsystems?System R was designed and developed over a period of 1974-79 at IBM San Jose Research Center. It is a prototype and its purpose was to demonstrate that it is possible to build a Relational System that can be used in a real life environment to solve real life problems, with performance at least comparable to that of existing system.Its two subsystems areØ Research StorageØ System Relational Data System.

10. How is the data structure of System R different from the relational structure?Unlike Relational systems in System RØ Domains are not supportedØ Enforcement of candidate key uniqueness is optionalØ Enforcement of entity integrity is optionalØ Referential integrity is not enforced

11. What is Data Independence? Data independence means that "the application is independent of the storage structure and access strategy of data". In other words, The ability to modify the schema definition in one level should not affect the schema definition in the next higher level.Two types of Data Independence:Ø Physical Data Independence: Modification in physical level should not affect the logical level. Ø Logical Data Independence: Modification in logical level should affect the view level. NOTE: Logical Data Independence is more difficult to achieve

12. What is a view? How it is related to data independence?A view may be thought of as a virtual table, that is, a table that does not really exist in its own right but is instead derived from one or more underlying base table. In other words, there is no stored file that direct represents the view instead a definition of view is stored in data dictionary.Growth and restructuring of base tables is not reflected in views. Thus the view can insulate users from the effects of restructuring and growth in the database. Hence accounts for logical data independence.

13. What is Data Model? A collection of conceptual tools for describing data, data relationships data semantics and constraints.

14. What is E-R model?This data model is based on real world that consists of basic objects called entities and of relationship among these objects. Entities are described in a database by a set of attributes.

15. What is Object Oriented model?This model is based on collection of objects. An object contains values stored in instance variables with in the object. An object also contains bodies of code that operate on the object. These bodies of code are called methods. Objects that contain same types of values and the same methods are grouped together into classes.

16. What is an Entity?It is a 'thing' in the real world with an independent existence.

17. What is an Entity type?It is a collection (set) of entities that have same attributes.

18. What is an Entity set?It is a collection of all entities of particular entity type in the database.

19. What is an Extension of entity type?The collections of entities of a particular entity type are grouped together into an entity set.

20. What is Weak Entity set?An entity set may not have sufficient attributes to form a primary key, and its primary key compromises of its partial key and primary key of its parent entity, then it is said to be Weak Entity set.

21. What is an attribute?It is a particular property, which describes the entity.

22. What is a Relation Schema and a Relation?A relation Schema denoted by R(A1, A2, …, An) is made up of the relation name R and the list of attributes Ai that it contains. A relation is defined as a set of tuples. Let r be the relation which contains set tuples (t1, t2, t3, ..., tn). Each tuple is an ordered list of n-values t=(v1,v2, ..., vn).

23. What is degree of a Relation?It is the number of attribute of its relation schema.

24. What is Relationship?It is an association among two or more entities.

25. What is Relationship set?The collection (or set) of similar relationships.

26. What is Relationship type? Relationship type defines a set of associations or a relationship set among a given set of entity types.

27. What is degree of Relationship type?It is the number of entity type participating.

25. What is DDL (Data Definition Language)?A data base schema is specifies by a set of definitions expressed by a special language called DDL.

26. What is VDL (View Definition Language)?It specifies user views and their mappings to the conceptual schema.

27. What is SDL (Storage Definition Language)?This language is to specify the internal schema. This language may specify the mapping between two schemas.

28. What is Data Storage - Definition Language?The storage structures and access methods used by database system are specified by a set of definition in a special type of DDL called data storage-definition language.

29. What is DML (Data Manipulation Language)?This language that enable user to access or manipulate data as organised by appropriate data model.Ø Procedural DML or Low level: DML requires a user to specify what data are needed and how to get those data.Ø Non-Procedural DML or High level: DML requires a user to specify what data are needed without specifying how to get those data.

31. What is DML Compiler?It translates DML statements in a query language into low-level instruction that the query evaluation engine can understand.

33. What is DDL Interpreter?It interprets DDL statements and record them in tables containing metadata.

34. What is Record-at-a-time?The Low level or Procedural DML can specify and retrieve each record from a set of records. This retrieve of a record is said to be Record-at-a-time.

35. What is Set-at-a-time or Set-oriented?The High level or Non-procedural DML can specify and retrieve many records in a single DML statement. This retrieve of a record is said to be Set-at-a-time or Set-oriented.

36. What is Relational Algebra?It is procedural query language. It consists of a set of operations that take one or two relations as input and produce a new relation.

37. What is Relational Calculus?It is an applied predicate calculus specifically tailored for relational databases proposed by E.F. Codd. E.g. of languages based on it are DSL ALPHA, QUEL.

39. What is normalization?It is a process of analysing the given relation schemas based on their Functional Dependencies (FDs) and primary key to achieve the propertiesØ Minimizing redundancyØ Minimizing insertion, deletion and update anomalies.

40. What is Functional Dependency? A Functional dependency is denoted by X Y between two sets of attributes X and Y that are subsets of R specifies a constraint on the possible tuple that can form a relation state r of R. The constraint is for any two tuples t1 and t2 in r if t1[X] = t2[X] then they have t1[Y] = t2[Y]. This means the value of X component of a tuple uniquely determines the value of component Y.

41. When is a functional dependency F said to be minimal?Ø Every dependency in F has a single attribute for its right hand side.Ø We cannot replace any dependency X A in F with a dependency Y A where Y is a proper subset of X and still have a set of dependency that is equivalent to F.Ø We cannot remove any dependency from F and still have set of dependency that is equivalent to F.

42. What is Multivalued dependency?Multivalued dependency denoted by X Y specified on relation schema R, where X and Y are both subsets of R, specifies the following constraint on any relation r of R: if two tuples t1 and t2 exist in r such that t1[X] = t2[X] then t3 and t4 should also exist in r with the following propertiesØ t3[x] = t4[X] = t1[X] = t2[X]Ø t3[Y] = t1[Y] and t4[Y] = t2[Y]Ø t3[Z] = t2[Z] and t4[Z] = t1[Z] where [Z = (R-(X U Y)) ]

43. What is Lossless join property?It guarantees that the spurious tuple generation does not occur with respect to relation schemas after decomposition.

44. What is 1 NF (Normal Form)?The domain of attribute must include only atomic (simple, indivisible) values.

45. What is Fully Functional dependency?It is based on concept of full functional dependency. A functional dependency X Y is full functional dependency if removal of any attribute A from X means that the dependency does not hold any more.

46. What is 2NF?A relation schema R is in 2NF if it is in 1NF and every non-prime attribute A in R is fully functionally dependent on primary key.

47. What is 3NF?A relation schema R is in 3NF if it is in 2NF and for every FD X A either of the following is trueØ X is a Super-key of R.Ø A is a prime attribute of R.In other words, if every non prime attribute is non-transitively dependent on primary key.

48. What is BCNF (Boyce-Codd Normal Form)? A relation schema R is in BCNF if it is in 3NF and satisfies an additional constraint that for every FD X A, X must be a candidate key.

49. What is 4NF?A relation schema R is said to be in 4NF if for every Multivalued dependency X Y that holds over R, one of following is trueØ X is subset or equal to (or) XY = R.Ø X is a super key.

50. What is 5NF?A Relation schema R is said to be 5NF if for every join dependency {R1, R2, ..., Rn} that holds R, one the following is trueØ Ri = R for some i.Ø The join dependency is implied by the set of FD, over R in which the left side is key of R.

51. What is Domain-Key Normal Form?A relation is said to be in DKNF if all constraints and dependencies that should hold on the the constraint can be enforced by simply enforcing the domain constraint and key constraint on the relation.

52. What are partial, alternate,, artificial, compound and natural key?Partial Key:It is a set of attributes that can uniquely identify weak entities and that are related to same owner entity. It is sometime called as Discriminator.

Alternate Key: All Candidate Keys excluding the Primary Key are known as Alternate Keys.

Artificial Key: If no obvious key, either stand alone or compound is available, then the last resort is to simply create a key, by assigning a unique number to each record or occurrence. Then this is known as developing an artificial key. Compound Key: If no single data element uniquely identifies occurrences within a construct, then combining multiple elements to create a unique identifier for the construct is known as creating a compound key. Natural Key: When one of the data elements stored within a construct is utilized as the primary key, then it is called the natural key.

53. What is indexing and what are the different kinds of indexing?Indexing is a technique for determining how quickly specific data can be found.Types:Ø Binary search style indexingØ B-Tree indexingØ Inverted list indexingØ Memory resident tableØ Table indexing

54. What is system catalog or catalog relation? How is better known as?A RDBMS maintains a description of all the data that it contains, information about every relation and index that it contains. This information is stored in a collection of relations maintained by the system called metadata. It is also called data dictionary.

55. What is meant by query optimization?The phase that identifies an efficient execution plan for evaluating a query that has the least estimated cost is referred to as query optimization.

56. What is join dependency and inclusion dependency?Join Dependency: A Join dependency is generalization of Multivalued dependency.A JD {R1, R2, ..., Rn} is said to hold over a relation R if R1, R2, R3, ..., Rn is a lossless-join decomposition of R . There is no set of sound and complete inference rules for JD. Inclusion Dependency: An Inclusion Dependency is a statement of the form that some columns of a relation are contained in other columns. A foreign key constraint is an example of inclusion dependency.

57. What is durability in DBMS?Once the DBMS informs the user that a transaction has successfully completed, its effects should persist even if the system crashes before all its changes are reflected on disk. This property is called durability.

58. What do you mean by atomicity and aggregation?Atomicity:Either all actions are carried out or none are. Users should not have to worry about the effect of incomplete transactions. DBMS ensures this by undoing the actions of incomplete transactions. Aggregation: A concept which is used to model a relationship between a collection of entities and relationships. It is used when we need to express a relationship among relationships.

59. What is a Phantom Deadlock?In distributed deadlock detection, the delay in propagating local information might cause the deadlock detection algorithms to identify deadlocks that do not really exist. Such situations are called phantom deadlocks and they lead to unnecessary aborts.

60. What is a checkpoint and When does it occur?A Checkpoint is like a snapshot of the DBMS state. By taking checkpoints, the DBMS can reduce the amount of work to be done during restart in the event of subsequent crashes.

61. What are the different phases of transaction?Different phases areØ Analysis phaseØ Redo PhaseØ Undo phase

62. What do you mean by flat file database?It is a database in which there are no programs or user access languages. It has no cross-file capabilities but is user-friendly and provides user-interface management.

63. What is "transparent DBMS"?It is one, which keeps its Physical Structure hidden from user.

64. Brief theory of Network, Hierarchical schemas and their propertiesNetwork schema uses a graph data structure to organize records example for such a database management system is CTCG while a hierarchical schema uses a tree data structure example for such a system is IMS.

65. What is a query? A query with respect to DBMS relates to user commands that are used to interact with a data base. The query language can be classified into data definition language and data manipulation language.

66. What do you mean by Correlated subquery? Subqueries, or nested queries, are used to bring back a set of rows to be used by the parent query. Depending on how the subquery is written, it can be executed once for the parent query or it can be executed once for each row returned by the parent query. If the subquery is executed for each row of the parent, this is called a correlated subquery.A correlated subquery can be easily identified if it contains any references to the parent subquery columns in its WHERE clause. Columns from the subquery cannot be referenced anywhere else in the parent query. The following example demonstrates a non-correlated subquery. E.g. Select * From CUST Where '10/03/1990' IN (Select ODATE From ORDER Where CUST.CNUM = ORDER.CNUM)

67. What are the primitive operations common to all record management systems?Addition, deletion and modification.

68. Name the buffer in which all the commands that are typed in are stored 'Edit' Buffer

69. What are the unary operations in Relational Algebra? PROJECTION and SELECTION.

70. Are the resulting relations of PRODUCT and JOIN operation the same? No. PRODUCT: Concatenation of every row in one relation with every row in another. JOIN: Concatenation of rows from one relation and related rows from another.

71. What is RDBMS KERNEL? Two important pieces of RDBMS architecture are the kernel, which is the software, and the data dictionary, which consists of the system-level data structures used by the kernel to manage the database You might think of an RDBMS as an operating system (or set of subsystems), designed specifically for controlling data access; its primary functions are storing, retrieving, and securing data. An RDBMS maintains its own list of authorized users and their associated privileges; manages memory caches and paging; controls locking for concurrent resource usage; dispatches and schedules user requests; and manages space usage within its table-space structures.72. Name the sub-systems of a RDBMS I/O, Security, Language Processing, Process Control, Storage Management, Logging and Recovery, Distribution Control, Transaction Control, Memory Management, Lock Management

73. Which part of the RDBMS takes care of the data dictionary? How Data dictionary is a set of tables and database objects that is stored in a special area of the database and maintained exclusively by the kernel.

74. What is the job of the information stored in data-dictionary? The information in the data dictionary validates the existence of the objects, provides access to them, and maps the actual physical storage location.

75. Not only RDBMS takes care of locating data it also determines an optimal access path to store or retrieve the data

76. How do you communicate with an RDBMS? You communicate with an RDBMS using Structured Query Language (SQL)

77. Define SQL and state the differences between SQL and other conventional programming LanguagesSQL is a nonprocedural language that is designed specifically for data access operations on normalized relational database structures. The primary difference between SQL and other conventional programming languages is that SQL statements specify what data operations should be performed rather than how to perform them.

78. Name the three major set of files on disk that compose a database in OracleThere are three major sets of files on disk that compose a database. All the files are binary. These areØ Database filesØ Control filesØ Redo logsThe most important of these are the database files where the actual data resides. The control files and the redo logs support the functioning of the architecture itself.All three sets of files must be present, open, and available to Oracle for any data on the database to be useable. Without these files, you cannot access the database, and the database administrator might have to recover some or all of the database using a backup, if there is one.

79. What is an Oracle Instance?The Oracle system processes, also known as Oracle background processes, provide functions for the user processes-functions that would otherwise be done by the user processes themselvesOracle database-wide system memory is known as the SGA, the system global area or shared global area. The data and control structures in the SGA are shareable, and all the Oracle background processes and user processes can use them.The combination of the SGA and the Oracle background processes is known as an Oracle instance

80. What are the four Oracle system processes that must always be up and running for the database to be useable The four Oracle system processes that must always be up and running for the database to be useable include DBWR (Database Writer), LGWR (Log Writer), SMON (System Monitor), and PMON (Process Monitor).

81. What are database files, control files and log files. How many of these files should a database have at least? Why?Database FilesThe database files hold the actual data and are typically the largest in size. Depending on their sizes, the tables (and other objects) for all the user accounts can go in one database file-but that's not an ideal situation because it does not make the database structure very flexible for controlling access to storage for different users, putting the database on different disk drives, or backing up and restoring just part of the database.You must have at least one database file but usually, more than one files are used. In terms of accessing and using the data in the tables and other objects, the number (or location) of the files is immaterial.The database files are fixed in size and never grow bigger than the size at which they were createdControl FilesThe control files and redo logs support the rest of the architecture. Any database must have at least one control file, although you typically have more than one to guard against loss. The control file records the name of the database, the date and time it was created, the location of the database and redo logs, and the synchronization information to ensure that all three sets of files are always in step. Every time you add a new database or redo log file to the database, the information is recorded in the control files.Redo LogsAny database must have at least two redo logs. These are the journals for the database; the redo logs record all changes to the user objects or system objects. If any type of failure occurs, the changes recorded in the redo logs can be used to bring the database to a consistent state without losing any committed transactions. In the case of non-data loss failure, Oracle can apply the information in the redo logs automatically without intervention from the DBA.The redo log files are fixed in size and never grow dynamically from the size at which they were created.

82. What is ROWID? The ROWID is a unique database-wide physical address for every row on every table. Once assigned (when the row is first inserted into the database), it never changes until the row is deleted or the table is dropped.The ROWID consists of the following three components, the combination of which uniquely identifies the physical storage location of the row.Ø Oracle database file number, which contains the block with the rowsØ Oracle block address, which contains the rowØ The row within the block (because each block can hold many rows)The ROWID is used internally in indexes as a quick means of retrieving rows with a particular key value. Application developers also use it in SQL statements as a quick way to access a row once they know the ROWID

83. What is Oracle Block? Can two Oracle Blocks have the same address? Oracle "formats" the database files into a number of Oracle blocks when they are first created-making it easier for the RDBMS software to manage the files and easier to read data into the memory areas.The block size should be a multiple of the operating system block size. Regardless of the block size, the entire block is not available for holding data; Oracle takes up some space to manage the contents of the block. This block header has a minimum size, but it can grow.These Oracle blocks are the smallest unit of storage. Increasing the Oracle block size can improve performance, but it should be done only when the database is first created.Each Oracle block is numbered sequentially for each database file starting at 1. Two blocks can have the same block address if they are in different database files.

84. What is database Trigger? A database trigger is a PL/SQL block that can defined to automatically execute for insert, update, and delete statements against a table. The trigger can e defined to execute once for the entire statement or once for every row that is inserted, updated, or deleted. For any one table, there are twelve events for which you can define database triggers. A database trigger can call database procedures that are also written in PL/SQL.

85. Name two utilities that Oracle provides, which are use for backup and recovery. Along with the RDBMS software, Oracle provides two utilities that you can use to back up and restore the database. These utilities are Export and Import.The Export utility dumps the definitions and data for the specified part of the database to an operating system binary file. The Import utility reads the file produced by an export, recreates the definitions of objects, and inserts the dataIf Export and Import are used as a means of backing up and recovering the database, all the changes made to the database cannot be recovered since the export was performed. The best you can do is recover the database to the time when the export was last performed.

86. What are stored-procedures? And what are the advantages of using them.Stored procedures are database objects that perform a user defined operation. A stored procedure can have a set of compound SQL statements. A stored procedure executes the SQL commands and returns the result to the client. Stored procedures are used to reduce network traffic.

87. How are exceptions handled in PL/SQL? Give some of the internal exceptions' name PL/SQL exception handling is a mechanism for dealing with run-time errors encountered during procedure execution. Use of this mechanism enables execution to continue if the error is not severe enough to cause procedure termination.The exception handler must be defined within a subprogram specification. Errors cause the program to raise an exception with a transfer of control to the exception-handler block. After the exception handler executes, control returns to the block in which the handler was defined. If there are no more executable statements in the block, control returns to the caller.User-Defined ExceptionsPL/SQL enables the user to define exception handlers in the declarations area of subprogram specifications. User accomplishes this by naming an exception as in the following example: ot_failure EXCEPTION;In this case, the exception name is ot_failure. Code associated with this handler is written in the EXCEPTION specification area as follows:EXCEPTION when OT_FAILURE then out_status_code := g_out_status_code; out_msg := g_out_msg;The following is an example of a subprogram exception:EXCEPTION when NO_DATA_FOUND then g_out_status_code := 'FAIL'; RAISE ot_failure;Within this exception is the RAISE statement that transfers control back to the ot_failure exception handler. This technique of raising the exception is used to invoke all user-defined exceptions.System-Defined ExceptionsExceptions internal to PL/SQL are raised automatically upon error. NO_DATA_FOUND is a system-defined exception. Table below gives a complete list of internal exceptions.

In addition to this list of exceptions, there is a catch-all exception named OTHERS that traps all errors for which specific error handling has not been established.

88. Does PL/SQL support "overloading"? Explain The concept of overloading in PL/SQL relates to the idea that you can define procedures and functions with the same name. PL/SQL does not look only at the referenced name, however, to resolve a procedure or function call. The count and data types of formal parameters are also considered.PL/SQL also attempts to resolve any procedure or function calls in locally defined packages before looking at globally defined packages or internal functions. To further ensure calling the proper procedure, you can use the dot notation. Prefacing a procedure or function name with the package name fully qualifies any procedure or function reference.

89. Tables derived from the ERD a) Are totally unnormalised b) Are always in 1NF c) Can be further denormalised d) May have multi-valued attributes

(a) i & ii because theta joins are joins made on keys that are not primary keys.

91. A B C is a set of attributes. The functional dependency is as follows AB -> B AC -> C C -> B a) is in 1NF b) is in 2NF c) is in 3NF d) is in BCNF

(a) is in 1NF since (AC)+ = { A, B, C} hence AC is the primary key. Since C B is a FD given, where neither C is a Key nor B is a prime attribute, this it is not in 3NF. Further B is not functionally dependent on key AC thus it is not in 2NF. Thus the given FDs is in 1NF.

92. In mapping of ERD to DFD a) entities in ERD should correspond to an existing entity/store in DFD b) entity in DFD is converted to attributes of an entity in ERD c) relations in ERD has 1 to 1 correspondence to processes in DFD d) relationships in ERD has 1 to 1 correspondence to flows in DFD

(a) entities in ERD should correspond to an existing entity/store in DFD

93. A dominant entity is the entity a) on the N side in a 1 : N relationship b) on the 1 side in a 1 : N relationship c) on either side in a 1 : 1 relationship d) nothing to do with 1 : 1 or 1 : N relationship

(b) on the 1 side in a 1 : N relationship

94. Select 'NORTH', CUSTOMER From CUST_DTLS Where REGION = 'N' Order ByCUSTOMER Union Select 'EAST', CUSTOMER From CUST_DTLS Where REGION = 'E' Order By CUSTOMERThe above is a) Not an error b) Error - the string in single quotes 'NORTH' and 'SOUTH' c) Error - the string should be in double quotes d) Error - ORDER BY clause

(d) Error - the ORDER BY clause. Since ORDER BY clause cannot be used in UNIONS

95. What is Storage Manager? It is a program module that provides the interface between the low-level data stored in database, application programs and queries submitted to the system.

96. What is Buffer Manager?It is a program module, which is responsible for fetching data from disk storage into main memory and deciding what data to be cache in memory.

97. What is Transaction Manager?It is a program module, which ensures that database, remains in a consistent state despite system failures and concurrent transaction execution proceeds without conflicting.

98. What is File Manager?It is a program module, which manages the allocation of space on disk storage and data structure used to represent information stored on a disk.

99. What is Authorization and Integrity manager?It is the program module, which tests for the satisfaction of integrity constraint and checks the authority of user to access data.

100. What are stand-alone procedures?Procedures that are not part of a package are known as stand-alone because they independently defined. A good example of a stand-alone procedure is one written in a SQL*Forms application. These types of procedures are not available for reference from other Oracle tools. Another limitation of stand-alone procedures is that they are compiled at run time, which slows execution.

101. What are cursors give different types of cursors.PL/SQL uses cursors for all database information accesses statements. The language supports the use two types of cursorsØ ImplicitØ Explicit

102. What is cold backup and hot backup (in case of Oracle)?Ø Cold Backup:It is copying the three sets of files (database files, redo logs, and control file) when the instance is shut down. This is a straight file copy, usually from the disk directly to tape. You must shut down the instance to guarantee a consistent copy.If a cold backup is performed, the only option available in the event of data file loss is restoring all the files from the latest backup. All work performed on the database since the last backup is lost.Ø Hot Backup:Some sites (such as worldwide airline reservations systems) cannot shut down the database while making a backup copy of the files. The cold backup is not an available option.So different means of backing up database must be used - the hot backup. Issue a SQL command to indicate to Oracle, on a tablespace-by-tablespace basis, that the files of the tablespace are to backed up. The users can continue to make full use of the files, including making changes to the data. Once the user has indicated that he/she wants to back up the tablespace files, he/she can use the operating system to copy those files to the desired backup destination.The database must be running in ARCHIVELOG mode for the hot backup option.If a data loss failure does occur, the lost database files can be restored using the hot backup and the online and offline redo logs created since the backup was done. The database is restored to the most consistent state without any loss of committed transactions.

103. What are Armstrong rules? How do we say that they are complete and/or soundThe well-known inference rules for FDs Ø Reflexive rule : If Y is subset or equal to X then X Y.Ø Augmentation rule: If X Y then XZ YZ.Ø Transitive rule: If {X Y, Y Z} then X Z.Ø Decomposition rule : If X YZ then X Y.Ø Union or Additive rule: If {X Y, X Z} then X YZ.Ø Pseudo Transitive rule : If {X Y, WY Z} then WX Z. Of these the first three are known as Amstrong Rules. They are sound because it is enough if a set of FDs satisfy these three. They are called complete because using these three rules we can generate the rest all inference rules.

104. How can you find the minimal key of relational schema?Minimal key is one which can identify each tuple of the given relation schema uniquely. For finding the minimal key it is required to find the closure that is the set of all attributes that are dependent on any given set of attributes under the given set of functional dependency. Algo. I Determining X+, closure for X, given set of FDs F1. Set X+ = X2. Set Old X+ = X+3. For each FD Y Z in F and if Y belongs to X+ then add Z to X+4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until Old X+ = X+

Algo.II Determining minimal K for relation schema R, given set of FDs F1. Set K to R that is make K a set of all attributes in R2. For each attribute A in Ka. Compute (K - A)+ with respect to Fb. If (K - A)+ = R then set K = (K - A)+

105. What do you understand by dependency preservation?Given a relation R and a set of FDs F, dependency preservation states that the closure of the union of the projection of F on each decomposed relation Ri is equal to the closure of F. i.e.,((PR1(F)) U … U (PRn(F)))+ = F+ if decomposition is not dependency preserving, then some dependency is lost in the decomposition.

106. What is meant by Proactive, Retroactive and Simultaneous Update.Proactive Update: The updates that are applied to database before it becomes effective in real world .Retroactive Update: The updates that are applied to database after it becomes effective in real world .Simulatneous Update: The updates that are applied to database at the same time when it becomes effective in real world .

107. What are the different types of JOIN operations?Equi Join: This is the most common type of join which involves only equality comparisions. The disadvantage in this type of join is that there

" Given with all the facilities would you like to work in a team or as an individual?" "Sir... as.... an individual" This was my answer when Infosys HR manager had asked me in my first interview. It's not unlikely that you don't do such mistakes in your initial interviews and loose the golden chances. Initially I didn't have even a rough idea about how the campus interviews are conducted, what they require, what to prepare, how to face etc. Those were my series of debacles, which taught me the finer tunes of the interviews. It took me around 10 interviews to finally cross the hurdle. I tell you 10 is a very big number. I only want that a capable candidate should not suffer because of his ignorance. I don’t want others to follow the series of failures as I underwent. Keeping this point in mind, I have tried to show the inner views of the campus interviews, which are also generalized for walk in interviews. I have tried to portray my experiences, my approaches and the steps that I think are apt for one to succeed. Here my aim is not just restricted for the people to know only about interviews, but also to aim at improving ones overall personality. My special thanks to Mr. Syed Salahudddin who encouraged me consistently to take up the project and worked parallely with me to finish this. I owe a great deal to the officer. I thank all my classmates and hostel mates esp. Mushtaq, Majid, Sawood and Nishant who stood by me and gave their full support and help. I request you to take these things seriously and read every time before you go for any interview. I also want this material to be forwarded to the people who could get benefited. These are just the views of one person, which might be wrongly interpreted also. So I want you to meet experienced people and try to generalize the things. I wish all the best for your endeavours. Thank you.

Sajid Ali Kalmani

1. SKILLS

There are basically three skills, which are necessarily required to succeed in the interviews.They are:1. Aptitude2. Communication skills3. Technical skills4. Attitude/Personality-this is transparent to candidates.(Candidates can lack one or more skills if they want the job by some shortcut means, but those who want the job fair and square, must possess all the above skills. You know what I mean). Let me consider myself a common man and tell you how I improved my skills. Then you can generalize them better.

1.1 APTITUDE

This is the first and most important step in climbing the success ladder. What’s aptitude? It’s ones ability to…, to…, leave it, I am not getting the definition. But let me tell you, aptitude is nothing but the combination of your basics, brain power, knowledge, commonsense, speed, accuracy, intelligent guessing, anticipation, decision-making and above all the positive approach. Aptitude test is like a 100 metre sprint with the lane width of just 6 inches. Overall, aptitude is your logic. Sometimes it is difficult and sometimes easy (Kabhi Kashi Kabhie Rome).Some have aptitude by birth (they are natural puzzle solvers). They can easily catch up how to solve numericals and analytical problems. They need to identify themselves and polish their approach. Others have to work like dogs.It took interest in puzzles when I was in 8th standard. That made me learn maths basics well. Maths Olympiad training and exam made me go for puzzles with mathematical approach. My craze for puzzles continued to PU and till B.E. In 1st semester I became the member of mathemagic magazine, which publishes varieties of puzzles from literature to numericals to chess puzzles etc. I seriously involved in solving them and sending answers to the editor. It was only in the second year that I heard that there is a company Infosys that asks only puzzles to recruit its employees. My happiness knew no bounds [patient keliddu mosaru anna, doctor heliddoo mosaru anna].I wrote the aptitude test for over 15 companies and I don’t know the disappointment of not getting short-listed after the written test. Frankly speaking I never prepared for aptitude tests. That’s why I was seen playing cricket throughout my engineering. So I request you, not to look at me and decide that written tests are nothing. I had a friend who had 78% of aggregate and was good at everything but couldn’t clear written test for 15 companies. At last he cleared somehow and further path was easy for him to sail through. Let me tell you how you could improve your aptitude. First & second year students can go for puzzles. Buy puzzle books like Shakuntala Devi, George Summers, Narula etc. and try to solve them. If you don’t get the answer, then see carefully the way the puzzle has been solved in the book. If you solve some 200 and odd puzzles then you imbibe the approach to solve any puzzle. This improves your analytical ability. Then you can switch over to numerals. Many companies ask verbal questions, for that you need not mug up the dictionary or thesaurus. You can read different books, novels, and magazines and learn words steadily. For final year student going for puzzles is optional. It’s better to go for quantitative aptitude book. Agarwal is the best one. Read the solved problems and once you understand them, solve the unsolved ones. For verbal, comprehension and analytical questions you can go for Barron’s GRE or any other good book. This preparation for aptitude is must for any engineer appearing the written test for almost any company. The two things that make you succeed in the interview are preparation and confidence.Preparation + Confidence = Success ---------------------- (1)After good preparation confidence comes automatically which makes you perform well. So confidence ~ PreparationSo from--- (1)Preparation + Preparation = Success Preparation = Success 2This implies that if you prepare well, you are already half succeeded. This was the mistake that I repeated several times. I didn’t prepare well for the interview,( esp. technical skills ) and thought that somehow by luck I might get into but by the time I realized that there is nothing called luck, I had carried my file nearly a deca-times.After preparation how to smash written test will be dealt later. Those who intend to copy in the written test should be careful, as some companies ask you to explain how you arrived at the answer, especially puzzles.

1.2 COMMUNICATION SKILLS

In campus interviews, there are many people who don’t know much of technical stuff, but by clearing the written, somehow they get into the company by campus interview. It is because they speak great English. I don’t think it’s much different in walk–in interviews. Having good communication skills is an art, which can be mastered by any one. The efficient and flexible person learns it faster. The English you speak should be error free, fluent and clear. It need not be fast. You should be able to convey yourself well before the interviewer. I know speaking good English is a problem for many engineering guys; it’s a myth that only English medium guys speak good English. It’s also a myth that they don’t rise above a certain level. But I deny that. I studied my primary level in Kannada medium. But I don’t think I was rejected in the interviews because of my communication skills. My flexibility helped me. What did I do to improve these skills? I made couple of English speaking friends at the college and used to talk to them for long hours. English movies did help too. Apart from story and action I concentrated on the accent and the way the actors used to deliver the dialogues. Giving pause and timing were very important. I used to stare at newsreaders and imagine myself reading it. I tried to read newspapers in the way they did. Sunit Tandon was really good. In home I used to tune to discussions, interviews of stars, sportsmen and follow them. Wasim Akram, Srikanth, Shahrukh Khan really inspired me. One can take a leaf out of Harsha’s commentary. These are some of the ways by which you can improve your English. You can even try other methods. Before doing any thing you can sit back and think what you have and what you lack. If your grammar is weak get a grammar book and study it from the scratch. If you can’t spell it properly go for dictionary or scripts and work on it, instead of cribbing about it for years. One should always aim at improving oneself. Always tell to yourself “Next year I will be a better person in knowledge, experience, attitude and everything.” For 8th semester guys it is better late than never, you can start now while others can learn steadily. One should enjoy learning things and not take it as a burden. Communication skills are very important for engineers and also for management students. So try to overcome your weaknesses. How do you improve is entirely left to you. It’s beyond just reading the books. It’s better start speaking English with your friends. Jamat people acquire communicating skills well, so I request them to preach in English. First and second year guys have enough time if they realize. 8th semester guys should be efficient and fast enough, learn faster and enjoy your learning. With preparation, I believe even some one like Sadiq* pasha can make it. And without preparation some one like Nayeemuddin** may not make it. Getting through the interview can be very easy if you wish.

* - Till 6 sem he had passed only four subjects viz., M1, M2, M3 and M4. Then he literally went mad.** - Topper to MMC College, presently doing his PG course in London.

1.2 TECHNICAL SKILLS

In the early years of engineering, students think that in interviews, hi-fi technology is asked which is very complex and difficult. So they don’t think of learning or refreshing the technical concepts keeping interview in mind. I was also one among them. But the truth is that the companies ask those technical questions which we have learnt like, what is amplifier, counter, XOR GATE, what is microprocessor, what is signal, what are pointers, data structures, what is linking, what are motors, gears etc., depending on your branch. If they ask something else you can happily say “Sir that was not there in our syllabus”. They switch over. The only difference between engineers and others is; we learn technical skills and others don’t. So if you want to call yourself an engineer see whether you have basic technical skills. So right from 3rd semester you start looking back at all the subjects you have steadied and recall their basics now and then. When you apply, you look at the pattern of interview, the area of work of the company. You can get to know on what subjects they would ask questions in interview. You can study those two, three subjects in depth, I mean in detail. You also have to just touch all the subjects superficially, esp. electives. As I said, the questions asked by companies vary based on their type (software or hardware) and your branch. For example, E&C students have to prepare technical in depth for hardware companies like Delphi, L&T, etc. But software companies don’t know much of electronics, So E&C students can relax a bit but you should know at least ‘C’ and puzzles.Computer guys must prepare technically well. Usually students take their favourite subjects as DSC, Operating System, C++, etc.For Mechanical boys technical skills are must. If they don’t know technical, they know nothing.

Mechanical – Technical = IP (Ignorant People)

So, most of your preparation time goes for studying technical aspects. Technical aspects means not advanced technology, but only the basics of subjects you studied as I said. The study should be thorough. I will list some of the technical questions asked often later. All most all the companies ask about your project work in detail. So study everything about all your projects. It’s better if you go through advanced technology in technical magazines and business aspects of the companies.

‘C’

Those who appear for software companies must at least know one computer language. If it’s C, it’s well. So I recommend all most all students to learn ‘C’ in depth by buying different ‘C’ books; Kanitkar is good writer.

1.4 ATTITUDE/ PERSONALITY

Everyone has his own; in-built personality and attitude towards life. It cannot be changed so easily. If some one wants to change them or develop good personality with positive attitude, they require something that many lack. But it’s not impossible. At this stage not to make you boring, let me skip this part. It will be dealt after the interview part is revealed.

1.5 APPLY

The companies that you apply are totally left to you. So before you apply you should have the rough idea about the type of company, its location, salary, bond, probable number of candidates the company requires, etc. Once you get to know the date, timing and location of the company, the first thing you should do is go to “Google” and then to the company site. Go through their recruitment section; watch out what skills they seek among you, the area in which they work etc. Then contact somebody who has been earlier interviewed by the same company, or who works in the company or who knows the test pattern of the company. Fetch out sufficient information.

Then sit and decide the subjects you are to prepare; like you may have to study verbal or puzzles, etc. Decide on which technical subjects you are going to prepare and start preparation thoroughly. This should be done minimum of 8 days prior to the interview. In these days study well. It’s like as if you are preparing for a war. So you should be as serious as hell. Don’t say ‘let me try my luck’. Say always ‘I can do anything and I will do it’.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. ONE DAY PRIOR TO INTERVIEW

This day you should keep everything ready. Your clothes, (shirt preferably plain and light, should be washed and pressed.), a pair of dark shoes, the file containing all your certificates, project reports, pen, tie etc. These all things should be kept ready even though if you are doubtful of clearing written test because many a times, I have run around like a dog in search of clothes, files, etc and because of this thing I even was late to Infosys interview.

2.1 IMAGING

Imaging is the most important philosophical aspect for any success. Let me explain imaging with an example. Do you think whenever Sachin scores a century it is only due to his game on the field? No! There is something which is responsible for it which is off the field. One day prior to the match Sachin imagines, sitting alone. He imagines: “Tomorrow I get up at 6 ‘O Clock. I will warm myself up for an hour, have break fast, take out my kit and go to the ground at 9 ‘O Clock. At 9:30 Saurav will go for toss, he wins it and selects fielding. I will stand at covers and field every ball that comes to me. Zaheer and Srinalth ball tidy spells. I will take a flying catch, etc. In spite of that, Ponting scores 140 runs, and the team score 359 runs. “I will open our batting. Initially I will take singles. Then I will charge McGrath. I score 50 in 15 overs. I will never go for paddle sweep, as there will be bounce for spinners. I will play aggressively. We will win and I will get man of the match award” Then next day Sachin will just repeat his images. This is called imaging techniques. Every successful person uses this. If you use this technique your confidence grows exponentially. So before you go to bed, lie down and start imaging in your mind. You go to the place, write test well, get short listed, give interview well, results announced, you are selected. More the depth you imagine more the success rate grows. I also recommend you to pray and ask the God to make you successful. Please sleep for at least 6 hours.

2.2 THE D-DAY

Get up early & scan the news headlines, which may be asked in the interview. Don’t take tension, be calm and move around a bit quicker than usual. Wish everybody, talk louder and laugh heartily. It should seem to others that you have taken the interview so easily & lightly. But inside you should be composed, confident, fresh, alert and raring to go. Just keep saying to yourself “yes I gonna call it a day today”. Reach the centre for written test half an hour earlier.

My first written test was for Talisma. I was not shot listed. Afterwards I regret it because in interview they asked only puzzles (my favourite area) and the salary was 37k. Do you know why I did not clear the test? Because I had not carried my watch. Yes, you require a watch to manage the time. Sometimes you need to be as fast as a humming bird. Based on my experience I have written some tactics to crack the written test. You can follow your own methods also. If you have sufficient enough time, then you can start from the 1st question and go till last. The problem arises only when the questions are more & time is less. It’s like providing voice, data & multimedia through a narrow band.1) After getting the paper it’s better to attend that section which looks easy to you. Many go for quantitative aptitude (numerical) questions. You can go for verbal at any time, but don’t spend much time on verbal because here you may have to guess a lot.2) If there is –ve marking don’t guess the answers. You can guess when there is 50% chance. But I suggest don’t guess. If no –ve marks are there, tick all the questions. But beware, “some companies look at number of wrong answers too.

3.1 QUANTITATIVE

i) Here leave the tougher questions and move further.

ii) Manage your time. Often look at the watch.In PHOENIX written test, 100 questions were to be answered in 30 minutes. So each question was to be answered in 20 seconds. It so happened that the first 10 questions were lengthy (4-5 lines long) and hence took more time for reading them. I realized it sooner and skipped the lengthy questions. I moved further where there were single line easy questions. I finished them all & then came back to the lengthy ones at the end, so I ended up answering 90-95 questions, but many people who started with initial lengthy questions, took much time and ended up answering just 70-80 questions.Hence plane your time properly.

iii) Representation with figures

As you read a problem or puzzle, you represent it with figures so that your brain can easily retain the problem for long time which makes you solve the problem quicker with faster analysis, for ex: let the question start like this, ‘A&B are couples. C is their son, D is C’s son and E is D’s wife. You can draw like

Or if the question is, A is older than E, E is older than C, D is of same age as A and so on. Then you can draw A = D > E > CThis representation makes you to compare or analyse the questions asked and answer fastly.If they say a train of length ‘l’ and tunnel of length ‘L’, then immediately draw a rectangular tunnel and a rectangular train with horizontal intercepts as bogies; indicate the length as ‘L’.

iv) After reading the question and after drawing their figure representations (not for all) subsequently, write down the related formula even if it is as simple as Speed = d / time

v) If there is speed-distance problem, I suggest solving it at the end. Most of the time such questions eat up your precious time.

vi) No company allows usage of calculators in the written test. Then how do you operate with fractions, say how do you calculate 29.11 x 41.24?If you start doing it digit by digit, you will never dream of finishing the paper.Here you can use some mental techniques, like instead of multiplying the fractions, it is better to approximate them to nearest integers. 29.11 can be increased to 30 and 41.24 can be reduced to 40. You should see that the amount that is increased in one number should be proportional to the value that is reduced in the other number. Then you get 30 x 40 = 120, as 29.11 x 41.24 = 120.04964So you almost got the answer! If the options are 115, 120, 125, 135, you can tick for 120, while approximating even if you get around 118.5, you can tick 120.If there is something like 41/7.2 then you can approximate 7.2 to 7 & correspondingly reduce the numerator to, say 40. Then you get 40/7 = 5.71 as 41/7.2 = 5.694: the approximation became almost accurate. You can master this technique when you practice this extensively. This saves your time like anything.

vii) Use your common sense. If in a problem the height of a mountain is to be calculated and you get the answer as 15 km, you can straight away reject the answer because the highest peak in the world is only 9 km high. Then you can recalculate the problem. When I was writing for Ivega in a question about averages, they gave the ages of children, their average age etc and asked the age of the father. I calculated fast and got it as 7 years, which was ridiculous. I laughed at myself and solved it again. I got 35 years.

viii) You should always have an eye on the options. If there are ridiculous answers, you can reject them and easily near the right answers.

ix) Many students start solving a problem. They struggle, struggle and don’t get the answer, then decide to leave the question and go for the next one. Thus they lose 5 to 10 minutes easily. To avoid this one should anticipate the time a problem may consume. If you think some problem may consume more time, you skip it. It can always be answered at the end. Again this anticipation comes by practice.

3.2 VERBAL

In verbal, you should always have a look at the options. If they ask the antonym of ‘beautiful’ and say you don’t know the meaning of it. You can look at the options that may read1. Ugly2. Smart3. Handsome4. Good looking In the given options, if you know that choices 2, 3 and 4 mean same thing, then you can blindly go for the first one.

3.3 PUZZLES

Solving puzzles doesn’t come naturally to all. There is no particular rule to solve the puzzles, but there is an approach which can be mastered only by solving numerous puzzles. For the inexperienced ones, I suggest just three things to do while solving a puzzle i.e., just concentrate, concentrate and concentrate. If you don’t understand, read the puzzle three to four times and focus on it. Here you may lose your time in the trade off.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. GROUP DISCUSSION

Group discussion is once again a filtering process. Here the communication ability and the ideas of a candidate are evaluated. A topic is given and 8 to 10 of you are allowed to speak on the subject for around 10 minutes. The topic of the GD is generic (simple). It may range from cricket to software industry, to Indian culture, to the future of humanity to anything, but it will be simpler. So one needs to have some kind of general awareness and needs to update with current affairs. Now how do you face it?* Usually the topic is debatable, so one needs to quickly decide whether you are far or against the given topic. I suggest, try to be different in your choice the group. You are given some 2 minutes time to make points about the subject.* If you initiate, you will get the advantage, but don’t initiate without ideas. It’s better to speak after two to three have spoken.* Be cool and look fresh.* Don’t look at the judges* Speak clearly and loudly facing all. Try to anchor the group, not dominate it.* Clearly explain your ideas with few weighted words. Don’t speak too much of nonsense.* Don’t murmur or stammer.* Don’t criticise others.* Always look at the person who is speaking and nod your head so that judges will see that you are listening.* If somebody is speaking more, you can say ‘you have spoken enough, let’s give chance to this person’ or ‘I agree with him’ or ‘you are going out of topic, let’s stick to the topic’* Speak around 2-3 times. I mean don’t speak just once for 2 long minutes and keep quite for rest of the time, so try to speak in bursts. If somebody is listening to the discussion from outside, he should see that you are alive inside.* Try to conclude yourself (if they ask to) One can practice mock GD with his friends to become familiarise with it. Actually Mandira Bedi’s group, ‘Extra Innings’ on Sony max on world cup 2003, had inspired me.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. INTERVIEW- TECHNICAL

Usually there are two interviews, one technical and a HR (human resources) . At this stage you are totally prepared and are confident. Let’s see how to fare in the interview. Dress neatly for the interview, preferably a light shirt with dark pants and dark shoes. You can wear a matching tie. Shave yourself cleanly, take a bath, comb your hair neatly and use a mild deodorant. Keep all your certificates, marks cards and resume in a file and carry your project reports to the interview. At the interview centre meet the guys who have finished their interview, and ask them what they were asked in the interview. Around 50% of the technical questions that were asked to them will be asked to you. So get to know the answers of those questions. Enter the interview room with a smile saying ‘may I come in sir?’ go near the chair and shake hands with the interviewer firmly. Generally oldies don’t shake hand and young interviewers prefer doing it. Sit only after they ask you to sit. Sit straight leaning backwards with legs open (don’t cross them). Give a fresh, eager, alert smiling look. Technical interviewers may not ask HR questions, but to start with, they may ask ‘ tell about yourself’, you can tell about yourself in brief (not literally). This will be dealt in HR section. Then they may ask ‘what are your favourite subjects?’ Name at least 2 to3 subjects which you have studied in depth. The questions asked will only be on basics of these subjects. They will surely ask questions about the projects you have done and electives you have mentioned in your bio-data.The generally asked technical questions are:Electronics and CommunicationAnalog circuits What is semiconductor diode? How does zener diode work as a voltage regulator? Explain transfer characteristics of transistor. How does a rectifier (usually bridged), RC coupled amplifier, oscillator work.Digital fundamentals How to realize XOR gate using NAND gates Half adder, full adder, combinational logic. Sequential logic, flip flops, RS flip flop, synchronous and asynchronous counters.Signals – op -amps what is signal?, convolution, Fourier series etc opamp, applications, filters, timers etcMicroprocessors architecture of 8085, 8086 and microcontrollers functions of pins, interrupts, instructions, interfacing programming simple programsCommunication What is AM, FM, multiplexing, TDM, FDM, receivers, What is PCM, sampling theorem, digital modulation techniques, vocoders, mobile communication (CDMA & GSM).Computer Science & Engineering( Example FAQ in interviews)

Note: These questions on OS are asked only if you tell OS as your favourite subject.

DBMS:1) What is normalization? Why is it needed?2) What are insertion, deletion, & modification anomalies?3) What is first, second, or third normal forms?4) Do you implement it in your project, how explain with example?5) What is super key, a key, candidate key, primary key or minimal super key etc?6) What is entity integrity, referential integrity etc?

nnSYETEM SOFTWARE: (rarely asked)1) What is an interpreter, differentiate between compiler and interpreter? (MIND TREE)2) What are assembler, linker, loader, and dynamic linker?3) What are Yacc, Parsing techniques, LR, LL, LALR grammars?

UNIX: (rarely asked)1) Expand UNIX, who developed it, when & where?2) What is file structure used in UNIX? [IBM]3) Differentiate between UNIX & LINUX?Some commands may be asked.

Note: question on SS, UNIX, JAVA, NETWORKS, OOPS, C++ are asked only in the pure software companies or big MNC’s or dream companies or if you say it as your favourite subject.

Mechanical related Questions1) Orthographic views2) Difference between I and III projection.3) Difference between Otto cycles and Diesel cycles.4) What are principal stress and compound stress?5) State 0th, 1st, 2nd law of thermodynamics.6) Explain Alumino thermite process.7) Different types of welding and machining8) Explain the importance of laser in modern mechanical field.9) Applications of mechatronics.[ I feel sorry; I couldn’t add questions from electrical, IT, civil, environmental etc. branches as minorities are always sidelined. These questions just look simple. They may grill you if your answers don’t look confident or if you try to bluff. If you don’t know, you can say ‘sir we don’t have that in our syllabus’ or ‘sir I am not remembering it’ or ‘I don’t know sir’. Maintain eye contact with the one you are speaking. While you are speaking give intermediate looks to the other interviewer. When they ask about projects you can spent more time on them, as you will be more comfortable with the projects you have done. Non-CS students who apply for software companies, should say, they at least know one programming language, generally C; and should be prepared to face questions like what are strings, pointers, header files or simple ‘for loop’ usage programs. Some software companies ask puzzles in their interview. This is the most challenging job to many people. There are chances that if they solve one or two asked puzzles they may get selected, other wise may get rejected. I have seen many good students struggling with puzzles, with tense and frightened look at the interviewers. Usually the puzzles asked will be simple. So be cool, take the paper and write down the figure representation of the puzzle and analyse it by fully focussing on it. Just forget that in front of you two (or more) enemies are sitting. Many students falter at this stage. One JC student who answered every question fired at him at Satyam interview was finally asked a puzzle.

How do you divide this figure into 7 equal parts?

The boy got tensed, struggled and gave up. He was rejected for not using common sense. By the way the answer was:

So don’t panic, be cool and feel confident. Yes, here a bit of luck is counted. Speak clearly and convince your answers to them. Don’t rush at your answers and end up stammering, getting confused. Speak slowly and steadily; such are the guys who impress more. Smile in between (if you don’t know the answer) and don’t make too many hand movements. Don’t use complex terminology, which you don’t know. (Practicing mock interviews really helps a lot). The technical interview may last for 15 to 45 minutes. With good preparation many people find technical interview easy. If you do technical badly, then there is 90% chance of your rejection, if it was average, then one can do well in HR and get selected.

6. HR INTERVIEW

Going into HR interview, you can be relaxed and feel free. But for few candidates HR section seems difficult. Usually HR interviewer will be a lady, so don’t get distracted. Just concentrate on her questions and your answers. This is very crucial stage of your life; if you stay focussed and perform well you will enjoy your future. There are many questions that HR managers from different companies ask. Let me list some of the questions and answers in a format, which I think, can be better ones. There can be hundreds of good answers, which can be given, based on your views, thoughts, personality, goals, expectations and finally the mood.1) How was the written test? Sir, it was easy. I think I did well.2) Tell me about yourself? Well, I was born in Dehradun. My father is Canara Bank Manager and mother is a housewife. I did my primary education in Royal Convent. My father was transferred to Banglore, when I was 14. I joined Kendriya Vidyalaya. I scored well in 10th with 95% aggregate for which I got CBSE scholarship. I did my 12th in the same school with 90% aggregate. When I was in 12th, I had participated in national level science exhibition held at Hydrabad. I wrote CET and secured 729 rank, even though I had got medical seat I took B.E. (Mechanical) in NIE …………. .[In between they may ask questions about the scholarship you got and the exhibition you participated.]3) Why did you leave medical seat? Right from my 10th standard I was interested in maths and I really didn’t enjoy biology labs. I wanted to learn the technology and do something in the technical field. So I opted engineering.4) O.K. After scoring good marks at PU why did you score less in engineering? Sir, in PU we had 5-6 subjects to be studied in 14 months. But in engineering we have four-month semester and we need to study 8 subjects per semester. Moreover the labs are like lottery. If no output, then fail. So there is luck factor playing its part in engineering. Yes, I think I could have studied still well and could have performed still better.5) Why do you want to work in a software company? When I took the seat in mechanical I didn’t know about software. But afterwards I thought, I better could have taken computer science branch because software is the fastest growing industry where one can build his career faster. Moreover I am flexible and efficient which make me suitable for learning the changing technologies faster and give my best.[For mechanical or electronics companies] Sir, I wanted to study some core, solid field of engineering, so I chose the evergreen branch, Mechanical. After studying the technical concepts for 4 years, now I want to see how these subjects are applied in the industry. So I want to work in the field that I have studied and give my best to the company I am working in.6) Why do you want to join our company? I have realized that software is the field where I can make a point. So basically I want to join a software firm like yours that works globally on cutting edge technologies and expose its employees to all the fields, which help the employees to excel.[If the company is small like IVEGA, ONMOBILE, ITTIUM etc.]sir, since your company is small, it can give every attention to each of your employees so that one gets to know all the things that’s happening in the company unlike some big firms like INFOSYS where some group is given some task and they are not allowed to see what’s happening on the other side. So one can grow faster in a smaller company like yours. So I prefer to work in your company.[If the company is big like INFOSYS, TCS etc]Sir, it makes me proud that there are few Indian companies which are global leaders today. The phenomenal growth of your company in last couple of years only speaks volume about your company. Yours is a SEI CMM level-5 company that gives its employees not only a challenging career, but also a rich work culture and rich values. I just want to be a part of that.7) What do you expect from the company? Freedom! The company should give its employees the freedom of thoughts, ideas and proposals so that one is not restricted to something. One should be allowed to share his views on the things going on in the company so that both the employees and the company get benefited. By this the company can spot the areas in which an employee is good at and can extract good results by making him work on that area.[Or you can say]The company should encourage those who perform well and provide growth opportunities. It also can work on strengthening the employee relationship. I think a company should be like a family.8) What are your strengths or why should we hire you only?[You can say your strength with respect to the company but there are 4 things that a company usually expects from you. They are hard work, efficiency, flexibility and teamwork] I am efficient and flexible. I can learn faster and deliver faster which is required in software industry.[You can say you are enthusiastic, creative, confident, have leadership qualities, communication skills, organisation skills, good memory etc, but support your answers with relevant examples. Here don’t try to bluff, if you want to bluff do it intelligently with proper expressions and emotions. For that you need to be an actor. You will win only when you out think your opponent. Out thinking is to know what the opponent is thinking and thinking beyond him. Wasim Akram had the ability to out think the batsmen and take them out with his variations. Sachin outthinks not only the bowler but even the opposite captain by improvising his shots. Vishwanathan Anand has to do the same thing. In an interview you need not defeat the interviewers but anticipate what they are expecting, what they are thinking about you and accordingly deliver the goods based on you and your preparation. It’s not as complex as it looks. Believe me.]9) What weakness do you have?  Well, I think I underestimate myself at times. (Or) I need to still improve in my communication skills. I am working on that. At times, I act carelessly, so I try to motivate myself always. [Don’t tell too many weaknesses, one or two are enough. Also mention the ways to overcome your weaknesses]

10) What really motivates you?  [Say who really motivates you] The achievements and sacrifice of all the great people in all the fields motivates me to do best in my field. The sheer thought of excelling in technical field and becoming a recognized individual in the industry motivates me.[or]The way my parents are struggling to educate me and their hope & blessings motivates me (or) Bill Gate motivates me (or) I am self-motivated.

Who is your role model?[You can say anybody but you should know what you like about him or her][I had said] My role models are Sachin and Shahrukh Khan, because apart from their talent they worked hard and dedicated themselves to their field and rose to stardom right from the scratch. I mean to say, they justified their talents to the full extent. I like their consistency [You can say Bill Gate, Narayan Murthy, Sports persons. Your Father, Scientist, politician or anybody. By the way many say, east or west ‘Vivekananda’ is best]11) Your Hobbies?[They see your resume or bio data and ask about whatever is written there. So prepare well thought resume. About hobbies say some quality hobbies (of course you should cultivate them) like writing articles, quizzing, organizing tournaments or competitions, knowing new cars, meeting new peoples and places, singing, sports, etc. Eighty percent of students write, ‘reading books and playing cricket’. Please avoid these two options as they have become default and moreover interviewers will be fed up seeing same hobbies again and again. So don’t put up something that makes interviewers boring and lose interest in you. You need to out think and present yourself as an interesting, curious, fresh and raring to go kind of candidate.12) What are your future goals? Right now I want to get into a good software/hardware/mechanical company like yours, stick to the company forever and grow along with the company.13) O.K. What about your higher studies? Sir, after my engineering I just want to get into the industry, see how it works and how I work in it. So I am not opting for higher studies at this stage. And also, as I am from a middle class family my parents can’t afford for my higher studies.14) Are you comfortable with our two-year agreement? Yes sir, I am pretty comfortable with that. Like this some companies may pour hundreds of questions. So don’t be impatient, show them that you have temperament and patience to work hard. Be modest and down to earth. Some companies may ask just a couple of HR questions, you should know earlier itself what you are going to speak. The people who can speak well without preparation are very very rare. Interviewers may ask some unexpected complex questions like:1) Consider yourself as C. E. O., what do you do for growth of the company?2) How can you improve employee relationships in the company?3) What can you do to avoid sexual harassment in the company?4) You said you are innovative; you better suit to join a product company rather than our services company.5) You being weak in communicating skills do you expect you will get the job?Take a breath, take your time to think and answer in a positive and optimistic way. Don’t leave hope or surrender at any stage. Companies ask whether you have friends and enjoy their company. This is to test whether you can work in a team. So always say you have pretty good number of friends and you enjoy their company. Never ever agree to work alone. I forgot to tell one thing, about imaging again. The day prior to the interview you sit alone and rehearse the interview. It’s like taking your interview by yourself. Ask HR questions to yourself and answer them loudly as you do in an interview. You can anticipate even technical questions and rehearse. This technique is very, very effective. Don’t think that you are the only one who has to do this; even ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ rehearses before acting. By the end of the interview you will get the clue whether you stand the chance or not. Even if you don’t have hope don’t leave the centre, wait till the results are announced. Koun jane Khuda ko aapka kounsa sajda pasand ajaae!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. RESULTS7.1 CELEBRATION Selected!! Wow that’s nice. Celebrations are totally left to you. But I suggest, if you want to party and have fun, do it on the same night as after couple of days you lose the josh of your success. After you get selected I swear, you won’t get sleep in next couple of nights. So ultimately everything has to be fought and earned. Believe in yourself, not in luck. Luck never made a mad man wise.7.2 NOT SELECTED Earlier I used to laugh the phrase “failures are stepping stones”, but now I think that failures are building blocks of your personality that make you stronger every time you fail. So you have failed irrespective of your efforts and endeavours; no problem. You can say to yourself ‘this was not my company, there are hundred more good companies and I will get into a better one’. I know how bitter the disappointment is, but life does not stop. The show must go on and on. This day you have not lost anything but gained something. You have gained experience, which makes you handle pressure in a better manner next time. You have got to interact with few people and got to know your shortcomings, on which you can always work and improve yourself. Yeah, I know how difficult it is to take these things positively. When I had failed in my first four interviews, I was so much disappointed that when one of my friends asked “Hey still you have not been selected? This time I wish you will be selected”. I had replied sarcastically “I am ready to face hundred interviews”. That day I came and watched the film ‘Kabhi Han and Kabhi Na’ which changed my way of thinking. In the film the character Suneel is a normal guy with ambitions and the desire to get his girl. To succeed or to get what he wants he tries in every way, he even lies here and there but does not succeed. But he does not feel guilty or disappointed at all. He keeps telling his parents that one day he will become a successful person. He tries again, but fails. He is restless; he looks more fresh and optimistic every time he tries. Ultimately he loses his love for whom he had yearned several years. But even then he smiles and hopes he will succeed some day. Kundan Shah has directed the movie very much realistically. This movie inspired me so much so that when I failed afterwards I never felt the disappointment. Again next time with a smile on the face and hope in my eyes I went for the interview. So I strongly recommend you to watch KHKN which is the story of optimism. You can look back what were the areas in which you didn’t perform well. Sit and work on those areas. And again with new hope and a fresh look apply for the next company. You may fail hundred times, but one day will surely be yours and that day you will feel like you have conquered the world. Feeling dejected makes you miss your moments. Good moments don’t come often in our life; one should live every moment that comes his way. Say yesterday, you had failed and today you have your brother’s wedding. If you are dejected, nervous and don’t enjoy the occasion and after couple of days if you get a better job, you will repent throughout your life that you could have enjoyed your brother’s wedding. ‘When a door is closed for us, we tend to look at the closed door for so long that we never observe the other opened doors’. When I had failed in Infosys I was so disappointed for weeks that I never realized when the companies, TCS, CTS, L&T came and went away. So please don’t get carried away with your failures. One more thing, always stay focussed on one particular thing. Say you have five call letters, please never ever think that you have so many calls and you can get into one or the other. Otherwise you will land up nowhere. Hence aim only the interview, you have right ahead and just do it. There is nothing called success because success is purely virtual and has no boundaries. So always commit to CANI (Constant And Never-ending Improvement), then what ever they call success, money, fame will all be yours. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. ATTITUDE

Company HR managers are psychologists. They can gauge the personality of the candidates by evaluating the answers given by them. So even by preparing perfect answers and bluffing perfectly you can’t prove yourself to be a person with solid attitude. Short term preparation doesn’t help this out. So if you start now you will find the difference after few years. So basically what should you do to get the job? You should impress the interviewers. You can do it by giving brilliant technical answers, knowing, explaining and appreciating company’s performance or business plans (for this you should be knowing what’s happening in the industry), telling your achievements, delivering emotional dialogues or portraying your personality which improves them. Changing our personality fully is difficult as few aspects are innate in us, which are unchangeable, but we can develop good attitude by commitment and practice. What’s actually attitude? It is the conception and the way with which we look at the things around us, people around us and behave or lead our life accordingly. I was too much of philosophical when I was in 2nd semester. I did lot of soul searching and set certain values for myself. Most of the time I followed them and it really paid off. The advantages that I got were, I never experienced mental stress and never had personal problems with anybody. The main advantage was that I enjoyed every moment that came my way and at the end of the day I am not complaining; I am happy. So let me list few tips that can help you. Even if you refer some personality books(I have heard Shiv Khera’s book ‘You can win’ is mind-blowing), you will find these things in some or the other way.1) Enthusiasm: - A man without enthusiasm is like an animal. Enthusiasm is the urge or curiosity to know, learn, do and experience new things and moments. With this one can lead a thrilling life, without which the life becomes just a routine like a machine. So this is the age, when your blood should rush to make you energetic to do (Positive) what you can.2) Angry young man: - Never get angry. If some body makes you angry, just laugh at them, laugh at the situation. Think that you are the master of the moment and you just don’t get out of control. In anger, if you shout at others or beat them, ultimately you have to repent about what you have said or done. Moreover by shouting or beating you are not changing anybody. So never lose your temper, let whatever happens: being cool and patient is an asset.3) Laugh at yourself: - If you can’t laugh at others, somebody will laugh at both them and you. Life is to enjoy, and laughter is its tool. When you laugh at others it’s OK, but the problem comes only when others laugh at you; you feel humiliated and tend to become short tempered. Instead one can learn to laugh at oneself. This avoids ego problems, makes you more social and down to earth person. So there is no use in thinking yourself as a great personality and behaving like a king because people always like modest individuals.4) Criticise: - Don’t criticise anybody. By doing that again you are not changing him to a good person. Criticism only spoils your personality. You won’t get anything if you comment on others. Weak minds talk about people, Average minds talk about events. Strong minds talk about ideas.5) Learn: - Have the hunger to learn the things you don’t know. Let it be technical knowledge, general knowledge, etiquettes etc. So learn the things eagerly and sincerely. Everyday you should feel you are improving.6) Groupism: - Even if you wish, you can’t work alone after you get the job. So those who like loneliness and are reserved; open yourself and make friends. Meet new people and share your views and knowledge. By this you can learn effective communication and develop leadership qualities. For leadership skills you can opt to become the captain in the cricket field and see how best you can manage the players. You can organize competitive events and try to lead in your project groups.7) Optimism: - Even if you are at dire straits, hope for the best. Even if you are dying hope that you would live. This what makes life sweater. Always believe you can bounce back and win. Never give up. Whatever you do you should not disturb, hurt or harm others. Being selfish doesn’t make you happy; making others happy makes you happy. Hence, always work for the welfare of the society. Still there are hundreds of aspects that can make your personality a rock solid. In this regard you can refer the personality development books. Your personality is measured not by your words but by your thoughts and behavior. So over the time anybody can develop ‘positive attitude’, if they are serious about it. With proper workout even a ‘khajoor’ (stupid) can become a dignified person.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. JUICY EVENTS AT INTERVIEW

1) For TCS interview I had worn a new shirt and had fixed a new pen in my shirt pocket. The first technical question, ‘write 8085 program to sort 10 numbers…’ the interviewer was explaining. Mean while I tried to take out my pen from my pocket but the new pen was so tight that it was not coming out at all. I pulled, pulled and pulled for around one minute, but the pen was stuck their like a virus. The other interviewer was enjoying the scene. Ultimately I asked ‘Sir can I have your pen?’“You should”, came the reply.With such a situation, who can come out successful?2) In L&T ‘C’ test, one of my friends solved a ‘C’ program and wrote the output as 200 unfortunately, which was the right answer. But he saw a ‘C’ punter in front of him, who had written 105 as the output for the same program. So he stroke off 200 and wrote 105 beside it. In the interview, interviewer took his ‘C’ answer sheet and asked ‘how did you get 105 after getting 200?“Sir, later I thought the answer might be 105 so I changed it to 105”.“Can you explain how did you get 105 with the given program?”The candidate was bewildered, he replied“Sir….. No sir……I……….actually guessed it”“Why did you guess 105 only?”“Sir…… because ………105 is my lucky number”And rest is the history.

3) One candidate went to CTS interview; of course he was a Kannadiga. His was the last interview of the day. The interviewer asked, “Who is the CM of Karnataka?”The candidate replied with great confidence, “Sir, K. M. Krishnamurthy”.Ultimately he was selected. By the way K. M. Krishnamurthy was his project batch mate4) By the end of 2002 I was so obsessed with the film ‘Devdas’ that I had watched it 10 times. In MindTree interview I mimicked “Shahrukh” as Devdas. I had remembered all his dialogues. Interviewers felt really happy and said they never had experienced such an entertainment at interviews. That was my best interview.5) In some interview, a guy called “Ehtisham” showed different Karate skills in front of the interviewers. [They didn’t take him because they feared one day he might kick them too].6) For a software company, 9 from our class were short listed for the Ist interview. For 8 of us they asked which programming languages we knew. We said we didn’t know anything except ‘C’. But one guy said he knew many languages and smashed every question that came his way. Unfortunately that guy was rejected. We all were short listed for the next interview. Finally 5 of us were selected for the company.-----------------------------------------